Wednesday, 25 May 2011

A friend of mine showed me the trick of using cottage cheese instead of white sauce in lasagna and it does make it considerably easier to make (as well as using one less saucepan as you don't need to make the white sauce).

Ingredients:

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tsp olive oil

1 tin of tomatoes

6 tomatoes, chopped into quarters

3 peppers, cut into thin strips

150g mushrooms, washed and sliced

400g fresh spinach

200g sheets of ready to cook lasagne which doesn't need pre-cooking

350g cottage cheese

50g mozzarella cheese, grated

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Fry the onion in the olive oil until soft.

Add the tinned and quartered tomatoes and peppers and simmer for 5 minutes.

Mix the spinach and mushrooms in a big bowl.

Cook the spinach and mushrooms over a low heat with a tablespoon of water in a large sauce pan. It should only need a couple of minutes until it's started to reduce down into a smaller volume.

Construct the lasagne in a lasagne dish by doing a layer of half the tomato sauce, followed by half the spinach and mushroom mix. Then a layer of sheets of lasagne, followed by the rest of the tomato sauce then the rest of the spinach mixtures and another layer of sheets of lasagne.

Finally spread the cottage cheese over the top and sprinkle the mozzarella over the top.

Friday, 20 May 2011

I cooked this after visiting a local Chinese supermarket and picked up a couple of the ingredients from there. It's great to experience the new range of flavours that such shops offer, I highly recommend random purchases from them.

Ingredients:

2 large mushrooms, washed and sliced

1 floret of broccoli, cut into 2cm pieces

1 chili, finely chopped

1 tbsp sunflower oil

2 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp olive vegetables (this is pickled vegetables and olives, again available from Chinese supermarkets)

Friday, 13 May 2011

Ingredients:

2 tbsp soy sauce, if you can get it then get Japanese soy sauce as it's less salty, but light soy sauce works too

2 or 3 sheets sushi nori

You'll also need a sushi rolling mat.

Method:

Cook the sushi rice according to the instructions on the packet. This will usually involve rinsing it a couple of times and then cooking it slowly in a sauce pan with a lid and a measured amount of water.

Wash and peel the carrots. Cut off the top and bottom of each carrot.

Carefully slice each carrot in half lengthways.

To get strips of carrot which are suitably thin then it's necessary to cut the halves of carrots in half again, but going in the same direction as the other cut. This will give you two thin strips of carrot, rather than 2 quarters. It can be tricky to do, and be careful not to slip and cut yourself with the knife.

Having got the 4 thin lengthways slices from the carrots, cut them into thin strips, no more than a couple of cm long.

Put the strips into a sauce pan, add the water and soy sauce and place a lid on the pan.

Bring to a simmer on a low heat and cook for 10 minutes, keeping the lid on the pan.

The carrot should now be softer, but not completely cooked, so they still have some bite.

Leave to cool.

To make the rolls, place a sheet of sushi nori on the rolling mat and cover 2/3rds of the nori with a thin layer of the sushi rice. Leave a gap of about half an inch at the bottom and about an inch at the top.

Place the strips of part-cooked carrot down the centre of the sushi rice. Be careful not to over fill it, otherwise it'll be hard to roll. However it's difficult to know how much to fill it without trying. Just don't be worried about failing to get a neat roll, it'll still taste as nice and after making it a couple more times you'll perfect it.

Before starting to roll up the sushi, brush cold water on the top edge of the nori so that it sticks to itself more easily when you roll it up.

Carefully roll up the sushi, starting at the bottom edge.

Once the mat is rolled up, press firmly all long it to help seal it all together.

Unroll and then cut into bit size pieces using a sharp knife. It generally helps if the knife is a bit damp as this prevents it sticking to the filling or the nori.

Serve with wasabi, if you like it, and pickled ginger, to cleanse your palette between pieces of sushi.

Serves 1, but you probably want to make some other types of sushi to go with it.

Wednesday, 11 May 2011

Ingredients:

1 tbsp soy sauce, Japanese soy sauce is best as it's less salty, but light soy sauce works too

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp rice vinegar, or if you can't get that then white wine vinegar

1 tbsp sesame or sunflower oil

2 to 3 large sheets of sushi nori

You'll also need a sushi rolling mat.

Method:

Cook the sushi rice according to the instructions on the packet. This will usually involve rinsing it a couple of times and then cooking it slowly in a sauce pan with a lid and a measured amount of water.

Break the eggs into a measuring jug and mix well with a fork.

Add the sugar, vinegar and soy sauce to the egg and mix well.

Heat a large frying pan (or a Tamagoyaki pan if you have one) on a medium heat.

Oil the pan with the sesame/sunflower oil, making sure it's well covered.

Drop a small drop of the egg mixture to the pan to check it's the right temperature. You want it to be hot enough to start cooking, with a quite fizz, but not too hot that it sizzles loudly.

When the pan is the correct temperature then pour in the mixture and leave to cook.

When the top has started to become firm (usually by bubbles that start to appear on the surface) carefully fold over the egg mixture, either in half or in thirds, depending on how thick you like it.

Remove from the pan and transfer to a plate. Don't worry if it falls apart a bit, once you chop it up to fill the sushi rolls it won't matter.

Leave to cool.

To make the rolls, place a sheet of sushi nori on the rolling mat and cover 2/3rds of the nori with a thin layer of the sushi rice. Leave a gap of about half an inch at the bottom and about an inch at the top.

Slice the cooked egg mixture into strips and place down the centre of the sushi rice. Be careful not to over fill it, otherwise it'll be hard to roll. However it's difficult to know how much to fill it without trying. Just don't be worried about failing to get a neat roll, it'll still taste as nice and after making it a couple more times you'll perfect it.

Before starting to roll up the sushi, brush cold water on the top edge of the nori so that it sticks to itself more easily when you roll it up.

Carefully roll up the sushi, starting at the bottom edge.

Once the mat is rolled up, press firmly all long it to help seal it all together.

Unroll and then cut into bit size pieces using a sharp knife. It generally helps if the knife is a bit damp as this prevents it sticking to the filling or the nori.

The cooked egg mixture is very nice on it's own, so if you have some left over then just cut it into bite sized slices and serve it on the side with the other sushi.

Serves 1, but you probably want to make some other types of sushi to go with it.

Friday, 6 May 2011

These are a refreshing way to prepare root vegetables in a way which isn't mashed or roasted.

Ingredients:

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 tsp olive oil

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

4 parsnips, washed and coarsely grated

2 carrots, washed and coarsely grated

50g plain flour

1 large egg

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp thyme

Method:

Fry the onion in a saucepan with the olive oil until soft.

Add the chopped tomatoes and balsamic vinegar and leave to simmer while you prepare the parsnips cakes.

Mix the grated parsnip, grated carrots, flour, egg, oregano and thyme in a large bowl.

Heat up a frying pan or griddle to a medium heat.

Use your hands to press 1/6th of the parsnip mixture into round patties about 2 cm thick.

Repeat this so you have 6 parsnip cakes.

Fry or griddle the patties in the pan you've heated up. They'll take about 10 minutes on each side. Turn them once during cooking to brown both sides. If you try to turn them too early then they might fall apart!